Saturday, 19 November 2011

rock and roll

Rock
is another movement and music type that originated in the mid sixties. It is
sometimes associated with emo style and lots of black. Today it can be
incorporated into our wardrobes in a toned down manner with a few rock-star
accessories and a bit of attitude.

Like
the hippie movement it is also often associated with drugs and people refer to
the “rock-star lifestyle” a lot. It
can be said that Frankie Cocozza, who was recently kicked off of the popular TV
Talent Contest, The X Factor, lived this sort of lifestyle. He had slept with a
lot of girls and liked to boast about it, he was a hardcore partier and, by the
time he was banned from the show, had gotten into Class A drugs.

Rock is portrayed a lot by the media. A TV show has already
been mentioned and a film will be mentioned in the next paragraph. The book “Johnny
Be Good” by Paige Toon is about a young woman who gets a job as a personal assistant
for an internationally known rock-star who lives the stereotypical “rock-star lifestyle.” It shows how
difficult it really is to work for someone like that. A well known song by
Nickleback which was featured in a DFS campaign a few years ago has these
lyrics in its chorus “’Cause we all just
a wanna be a big rock star and live in hilltop houses, drivin’ fifteen cars and
we’ll hang out in coolest bars with the VIPs and movie stars, every good gold
digger’s gonna wind up there, every playboy bunny with her peach blonde hair
and hey, hey I wanna be a rock-star.” This time we are not necessarily
responsible for stereotyping. How can we be when every type of popular media is
telling us the same thing? There are rock-stars out there that do not go to
such extremes as they just want to work hard on the music, which is why they
got involved in the first place but they probably still have a bit of a
rock-star attitude. We cannot blame them for their behaviour as there is
probably temptation around every corner.

If you have watched the film Grease, if not
then I highly recommend that you do as it is my favourite film, then you will
probably have heard a lot of rock and roll at the school dance and talk of rock
and roll in the songs i.e. “rock and roll
is here to stay, it will never die. It was meant to be that way, thought I
don’t know why.” The most influential musicians from the early rock era
were probably The Beatles and Elvis Presley, who both focused on the rhythm and
blues side to rock which was paramount in the early rock age. In H&M at the
moment they sell t-shirts with both photographs of Elvis and photographs of The
Beatles on them as well as ones featuring Guns and Roses and The Rolling Stones.
Jimi Hendrix was a very talented rock guitarist during this era and his style
of music was more like the rock that we hear today.

From the late sixties up until the eighties, rock became an
art form. Andy Warhol even became manager of rock band, Velvet Underground.
Fashion is an art form so with all the rock and art merging together, let us
takes a look at the style from that era. Expressive patterns and structured
jackets were in abundance which signifies art’s influence at the time.

The punk movement was a large one that shifted popular music
a lot. Today, we often refer to “punk
style” in magazines or on style blogs. The Sex Pistols were probably the
most significant artists of this era and the ones that we have heard of today.

Heavy metal, this is the sort of thing that I wanted to get
to. I listen to Aerosmith sometimes as I have their album on my iPod but there
are some people that say that Aerosmith are not heavy metal. Some of their
songs are like “Toys in the Attic” are closer to heavy metal whereas songs like
“I don’t wanna miss a thing” are bluesier. Heavy metal is arguably the most
commonly misunderstood rock form.

Nowadays, the most popular type of rock is Indie rock with
an Indie rock boyfriend being one of this season’s most stylish accessories.
Keira Knightley is currently dating a member of Indie rock band, The Klaxons.
Stylish couples are so hot right now. It is just so aesthetically pleasing to
see two good looking people walking hand in hand. The Kooples campaign, French
Connection campaign and Jack Wills all feature very stylish couples.

To conclude, today, rock can be incorporated into our wardrobes through wearing T-shirts that commemorate previous rock heroes. I have seen a lot of people wearing the Guns and Roses T-shirt that you can see above and every time I see someone wearing it I think that they must have something to do with rock and roll. Wearing them with some distressed skinny jeans and battered black converses gives off the "I don't care" look but if you want something more glamorous opt for a black tube skirt, holey black tights, black platforms and lots of gothic make-up. Chokers are huge this season and a black choker will add a touch of rock to the tamest outfits as will black eye make-up, so there are many ways in which you can rock out. Have fun experimenting.

PS. If you want the look to work really well, join a band! If you don't already play an instrument, take up bass guitar as you can join a band almost straight away as the simplest sequences are easy enough for a beginner to learn.

ABOUT

Hi I’m Sophie. I’m a writer and freelance fashion journalist based in Kent/London. I keep this blog to document my interests and various style inspirations. You can contact me at sophie.wilson09a@hotmail.co.uk